North Vancouver's Manuel Osborne-Paradis came flying out of the gates to start the 2014-15 World Cup ski campaign, scoring silver in the season-opening downhill last Saturday in Lake Louise, Alta.
The man known as Manny actually tied for second with France's Guillermo Fayed, just 14 hundredths of a second behind winner Kjetil Jansrud of Norway. The podium placing was Manny's first in nearly five years, his last top-three coming with a silver in Switzerland in January of 2010. The national team veteran was thrilled to make it back onto the podium.
"It feels really good," he said in an Alpine Canada release. "I was nervous today because I knew I could podium and this was the best chance I have had in a long time."
The silver showing came in tricky conditions as the racers only got in one training run, the Wednesday before Saturday's downhill. Thursday and Friday were snowed out but the lack of practice didn't seem to effect the leaders — Jansrud and Manny also finished first and second in the sole training run.
"You have to be in a different mental state when you only have one (training run)" Manny said. "It worked for me. I had a fast training run and was ready for today's race."
The podium placing was a monumental one for Manny as it put him into double digits with 10 World Cup medals for his career. It also broke a slump that included some of the lowest points in his career. Manny suffered a broken leg and torn ACL in a nasty crash in January of 2011 and then was further injured that summer in a fall from a party bus during the Calgary Stampede. Those injuries kept him off the circuit for nearly two full seasons.
Manny returned for the 2012-13 campaign and posted several strong results over the next two years — including a pair of fourth-place finishes — but failed to reach the podium until last week's season opener. Heading into the race the recently married 30-year-old was getting nervous about his chances of ever getting back into a top three spot.
"I was really worried," Manny told Postmedia News. "Canadians have a bit of a curse. (Downhiller) Rob Boyd and (giantslalom specialist) Thomas Grandi, they both finished their careers with nine (World Cup) podiums. They weren't able to get into double figures and I was worried I wouldn't get there. I knew I had it in me, though, and now I'm super happy to get there and hopefully there's a lot more."
Manny finished off a successful opening weekend with a seventh-place finish in Sunday's Super G in Lake Louise. He attributed his strong start to an intense off-season training program as well as his work with the Canadian team's coaches. Alpine Canada recently brought back coach Burkhard Schaffer, an Austrian who worked with Canadian skiers from 2001 to 2006 when Manny was first making his mark on the international scene. The coach's return has Manny feeling good about his racing.
"For me, it's important," he said. "Everybody has somebody who drives them a little better than others. When my ADD gets in the way of my training and programs, he's somebody who can stabilize me.. .. A good yelling never really hurt anybody. He's just a guy who makes sure you stay on the straight and narrow. He makes sure you get the amount of runs you should and get enough reps."
Manny is also fired up about the emergence of Hannes Trinkl, a new course setter and former World Cup champion who is quickly gaining a reputation for setting courses that have a traditional downhill feel — less technical and more flat-out speed. The old-school downhill setups are just the kind of races that an old-school downhiller like Manny enjoys.
"Downhill is my bread and butter," he said.
The racers are back in action this weekend in Beaver Creek, Colo. Manny finished 20th in Friday's downhill and was scheduled to race Saturday's Super G after North Shore News press deadline.
When the action wraps up in Colorado the skiers will head over to Europe for a series of races starting in Val Gardena, Italy Dec. 19.
